


the waitress wakes up

by beeperking



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-01 23:45:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10203551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beeperking/pseuds/beeperking
Summary: The morning after, sort of.





	

The Waitress woke up alone in Charlie's shitty apartment for the third day in a row, bathed in grey light filtered through dingy curtains. It took her a few moments to clear the haze in her mind enough to remember where she was and that she was very, very hungover. The smell of cheese and decomposing urine seemed to permeate every surface of the apartment, in spite of the efforts she had made to tidy up over the last few days. Crusty brown stains clung stubbornly to the carpet in the corner where she had found their piss-cans. 

She rolled over on the sagging futon with a groan, and the combined movement, hangover, aroma, and despair overwhelmed her; bile rose in her throat, and it was all she could do to make it to the window before all the vodka she had drank the night before came back up again and spilled out onto the fire escape.

She leaned heavily against the frame of the window and caught her breath, greedily sucking in the relatively fresh air outside. It had been days since Charlie had been home or answered her calls. What was she doing here? Why did she even care? The Waitress stared vacantly down at the alley, where a ragged cat was feebly trying to drag something out of a limp cardboard box. It would be so easy to just let herself tumble over the side of the fire escape, she thought, and pray she really did wake up in 2006 when life was simpler and the Gang hadn't gotten their filthy little lives all tangled up with hers. And now, possibly her child's life.

A sudden panic overtook her at the thought of Charlie as a father, and she pressed her face against the cool glass of the window until the urge to vomit again passed. She steeled herself for the smell and turned back to the miserable little apartment that had made her feel so trapped since the moment she set foot in it. It was time to go; this fleeting experiment had run its course, and she needed a new plan. As always, she wondered why she had ever dared to trust anyone in the Gang, or to hope that the brief feeling of warmth and acceptance she had felt would last. She paused with her hand on the door with a growing sense of dissatisfaction - feeling her frustration mount until she turned back, snatched up Charlie's ridiculous "presentation" and crammed it through the window. 

The Waitress stayed just long enough to watch the crumpled poster boards send the cat bolting down the dirty alley with a startled squawk, and slammed the apartment door behind her.


End file.
